Retroist Podcast – Episode 130 – Yars’ Revenge

On this week’s show I talk all about legendary Atari 2600 title, Yar’s Revenge. I am joined this week by Vic Sage with a new “Why Should I Know this Person?”, Doug McCoy with a new “Also Ran” and Rob “Flack” O’Hara with a great new “Talking Tech”. Music on the show was provided by Peachy (the Ray Kasser of Wales), if you have musical needs, why not contact Peachy at peachy@retroist.com and “like” him on his Facebook Page. We also have a special musical guest this week…Weird Paul.

To download this show, click the mirror links below. If you are interested in hosting a mirror of this episode, please drop me an email at retroist@retroist.com with the URL of the file. It would be very appreciated.

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17 thoughts on “Retroist Podcast – Episode 130 – Yars’ Revenge”

mwentworthsays:

Awesome! Back in the day, this was the game that I could dominate and impress my friends. My high score on the regular game was 674K and some change, but on a recent competition on AtariAge, I barely broke 250K. I love picking that swirly jerk off in mid-flight. I didn’t understand the easter egg (HSWWSH) back then and thought it was a punishment for hitting him in midflight too many times in a row to build up my score.

I first got this game in the late 90s, along with a bunch of other 2600 games, along with a system. There were no manuals for any of the games, so I had a bit of a time trying to figure out wtf I was supposed to do.

I wish I could be playing the game for the first time again and not know what was going on so I could document how I went about figuring it out. I must have read the instruction like a responsible player when I originally got my copy.

Minor subjective criticism: in recent episodes with both the “Also Ran” and “Why Should I Know This Person” in the show it seems like there is too much content in each episode of someone reading long lists of things. Also Ran is “Other TV shows of the time included…” and “Why Should I Know This person is “Other projects this person did included…” and in each case these statements are followed by multiple long lists of names that get a little monotonous. The guys presenting these segments seem knowledgable, but there are other ways to present the information they have than lists. Maybe by concentrating on a few informative examples of other things with more depth it would be more interesting (to me).

This game is one that held a sort of mystique for me. The art was so cool it just had my imagination running on full speed when I first saw it. Playing the game later when I was a bit older really reinforced how cool it was, not only was the gameplay amazing, but the sounds and lack of sound really added to the atmosphere.